A Birth day

"Sounds good," Angus said. "I'm sure it'll be fine. You haven't messed up anything in the kitchen since I've met you, so I'm sure it will be delicious." 

"Your roast is good, Ruby," Marcus said. "Good job."

"I hope you dont' expect me to be able to cook like this once we're living together," Anise told Sam.

"No," Sam laughed. "I expect we'll be good at sandwiches and at ordering take out."

'I'll buy you a cookbook," Angus said.

"No, Angus. That isn't going to help me," Anise said. "Not unless the book does the cooking."

"I haven't found a cookbook that actually does the cooking," Angus laughed. "I suppose if you both got a high paying job, you could hire a house elf to take care of you. Or you could learn to do your own cooking and your own cleaning and your own laundry."

"Sounds like work to me," Sam teased.

"He's allergic to work," Victor teased.

Ruby smiled to them all and nodded " thank you I learn from the best" she said looking at Angus as he carved the roast then handed it out she took her plate and several slices and sat down to eat happy every one was enjoying the roast and vegetables in front of them. Hearing Sam and Anise talking she chuckled. " your not that bad Anise you can do basics" she said with a smile.

Aria listened and chucked as Sam and Anise spoke of take outs and sandwiches. " I know of some in my old team that do that but they learned to cook" she said " I learned out in the wilderness" she said as she ate her beef " this is good Ruby" she said as she helped Caprice to eat small pieces of the meat and veg. Dimond only ate the veg leaving the meat to one side Ruby looked to Angus but felt she was just leaving it to last before eating.

Angus believed Diamond would eat better if things were placed on her plate just a wee bit differently, so he accio'd her plate, rearranged the meat and vegetables. He flicked his fingers at the pieces to change their shapes to basic shapes that the babies needed to learn--squares, hearts, diamonds, triangles, etc, and he placed them in different ways on the plate to strike some interest. Then he sent the plate back to her. 

"See if that helps," Angus said quietly. 

"Our plan is to live with Victor and Ginger forever because Ginger can cook--sorta," Sam said.

"Your plan is to what?" Victor frowned. "I don't think so. You'd better get a flat above Sparks or something, Mate, because I'm not having you under my roof because you won't buy a cookbook."

"You'd leave your only brother to sleep out in the streets?" Sam looked at him wide eyed.

"If you can afford to buy takeout from Sparks three meals a day, seven days a week, you can bloody well afford a flat," Victor said.

"Not if I'm buying from Sparks 3 meals a day, 7 days a week," Sam laughed.

"Your priorities are seriously effed," Victor shook his head. 

"Sooner or later, he'll get tired of living outside in the snow, and he'll make better budget choices," Angus told Victor.

"In the snow! You wouldn't take me in?" Sam asked.

"For sheer stupidity? Probably not," Angus said. Anise laughed, knowing that Angus very likely wouldn't take them in if they were stupid. Hard times would be a different story, but stupidity? No. Angus didn't roll like that.

Ruby watched as Angus accioed Dimond's plate and changed and rearranged the food on it then sent it back , she saw Dimond look at it then happily begin to eat " that worked thanks" she said as she watched Dimond and Caprice eating happily together a she she did the same listening to the banter with Sam and Victor. she agreed with Angus about not taking him in if he was stupid.

Aria watched and chuckled at Victor and Sam smiling as she heard them talk about how they would survive once they left home to find their own places. " I'm sure he'll learn quick enough , having hunger pangs will drive you to learn really quick." she said and chuckled ass she ate some more of the beef and veg.

"Just a little trick in culinary school about presentation," Angus said. "I'd forgotten all about it until I saw her noticing the bright colors of the carrots and bypassing the meat. One of our instructors was talking about plating and spent about thirty minutes talking about how to change presentation for little picky eaters. We haven't had so much of an issue with Caprice about that, and Abbey would eat anything she helped me fix or saw me eating. This one is going to be different, and it makes sense that she would since she was so underweight and underdeveloped when we got her. Her physical health is better, but we're liable to see some delays yet for some time. I'm hoping if we keep working with her that we'll get her past it."

"Well, you said that Abbey learned to eat a lot of different foods because you had her in the kitchen with you," Ginger said.

"That's true," Angus said.

"So maybe that's what you should be doing with the babies. Maybe they need to get in the kitchen more often with whoever is cooking, like Abbey was," she said.

"It might be worth a try," Angus said. "What do you think?" He asked Ruby and Aria.

Ruby listened to Angus and chuckled nodding as he said it was about the presentation of the food 2 hum , I'll remember that for next time" she said then heard Anise mention about having the babies with them when they cooked and she smiled " I think that's a great Idea" she said as Aria nodded to Angus.

"they' ll get to know about different foods , and maybe when the crops are ready to be picked they can help too" she added knowing they would be ready soon. Ruby chuckled and stood up heading to the kitchen she retuned with the cheese cake and place it down with bowls and spoons " help your self guys" she said taking two bowls and sending them over to Angus and Marcus.

" enjoy I used the fresh strawberry's" Ruby said helping Caprice eat it while Dimond was being helped by Aria and loving it.

"We'll give it a try," Angus said.  When Ruby brought the cheesecake out, they all helped themselves to a serving. 

"Great cheesecake, Ruby," Victor said. 

"Well done indeed," Angus told her. "I couldn't have done better myself."

"I made a cheesecake once, but I wasn't so successful," Ginger said.

"In all fairness, it isn't easy to cook a cheesecake on a campfire," Anise said.

"No, it certainly isn't," Angus frowned. "How'd you do?"

"She called it an Earthquake Pie," Anise laughed.

"Why?" Angus frowned.

"Because it had a huge big crack down the center," Ginger said. "I told them it was an earthquake pie, and it was supposed to have at least one big fault line through it." Angus laughed out loud.

"Well, some chefs actually do what you did, and they try to tell someone that their mistake was on purpose," Angus smiled. "But how did it taste?"

"It was great," Anise said. "It just looked really weird."

"Then I think it was a success. Well done, Ginger," Angus smiled. He glanced over at the babies, who were digging into their cheesecake portions with both hands, squishing cheesecake in their fists and starting to lob it everywhere. 

"Uh oh. Food fight," Sam said. "Look out."

Ruby listened to Anise and Ginger " cheese cake on a camp fire?" she said and shook her head but laughed when they explained what they called it and that it tasted good " well that goes to show don't judge a cake by its appearance" she said and chuckled at when Sam called a food fight between Dimond and Caprice who were goggling loudly at each throw. One piece hit Ruby who just laughed as another hit Sam square in his face.

Aria took her bowl and moved out of firing range " I'd let them have fun for now, it'll tire them out, not sure who first the boys or the babies" she said as Finn went around licking up any that hit the floor loving the treats he was getting his tail wagging behind him as he moved under the table.

"Wait a minute. I'm not sure we want them to tire themselves out," Angus said. "Not if we're taking them with us to the cabin to check out the burning bowl. The last thing we need is two loud, cranky babies." Angus got up and picked up Diamond. "Sam, get rid of their cheesecake. Dessert is over for them. Ginger, please get Caprice and clean her up. We need to get them changed into clean clothes. Anise and Sam and Victor, please clear the table and put the leftovers away so we can get ready to go." The kids all four got up to do what Angus told them to do. 

Angus and Ginger took the babies upstairs, bathed them and got them into clean clothes and brought them back downstairs. Anise and Sam and Victor cleared the table, put the leftovers away, wiped the counters and the table, and packed water bottles into the insulated lunch bag with some ice packs. 

Angus taught all four teens how to put a baby into the backpack and secure them there, how to adjust the backpack and then how to put the backpacks on and fasten it securely to make sure there was no safety risk to the boys or to the babies. Marcus got a change of clothes, a jacket, a snack, and a sippy cup for each baby, shrank them, and put them in a plastic sandwich bag and put them in the lunch bag so they had them if they needed them. 

"You both know how to get to the cabin?" Angus asked.

"Well, we don't have portkeys there, but we can show you on a map where it is," Sam said. 

"Then show me," Angus said. Sam got out Angus's atlas and showed Angus exactly where the cabin was. "Oh. That shouldn't be hard. Is it unplottable?"

"The cabin isn't but the freaking woods is," Sam said, "which is stupid because you can see the woods from the cabin. Dad was a dork."

"Sounds like he didn't make the best choice where that woods was concerned," Angus said. "I'll go see if Minos can go along. Presuming the babies are ready, how soon can the rest of you be ready?"

"Ginger and I can be ready in just a couple minutes" Anise said.

"So can we," Victor said.

Aria looked at Angus and nodded " oops," she said as Ginger and Anise went and cleaned the babies while the boys cleaned the table and chairs of Cheese cake. Ruby went and cleaned up herself and returned with a clean tee shirt on, one of Angus. She saw the bags ready and the babies now cleaned and smiled to Anise and Ginger " thank you" she said with a smile.

"yeah , I forgot they were going with us to look at that bowl" she said as Sam brought over the map " sounds like he was really clueless" Aria said as she looked at the map then to Sam and Angus " I'm guessing the quicker we get there the quicker we can gather just what he was up to" Aria said